Feeling old

My daughter was calling a friend to inquire about the slumber party she was planning. Yes, we're having a slumber party! When I was twelve, I loved, loved, loved slumber parties.  Now, I loathe, loathe, loathe slumber parties!  Getting all those girls to quiet down and go to sleep is like herding cats, an impossible task.  Of course, my husband just wants to sleep and all that giggling makes him nervous.  I think he's afraid if he actually goes to sleep that the girls will sneak up on him and paint his toenails or something.  

Anyway, after several attempts to reach this young lady, my daughter asked me what it meant when the phone went, beep, beep, beep.  I didn't know what she was talking about so she put the phone up to my ear.  If you're older than twelve, you recognize a busy signal immediately but if everyone you've ever known has call waiting, call forwarding, voice mail, etc., you have probably never heard a busy signal.  My daughter looked at me like I was from another planet when I explained the busy signal.  She had never heard one before!

I began to explain what the telephone was like back when I was twelve.  I even had a friend who was on a party-line.  We would get a real kick out of listening to the town gossip on the line.  My daughter was aghast to think her mother would listen in to others conversations on the line.  Apparently, she can't envision me as a twelve year old! I guess that's alright, my mom was never twelve either!

It's amazing to me to think of all the technicalogical advances that have been made since I was twelve.  It becomes mind-boggling to think of what it will be like by the time I'm sixty.  I think about the generation that traveled by horse and wagon and suddenly had cars.  Our voices traveled by wire and now they travel wireless.  I can converse with people on the opposite side of the world in real time.  I wonder what the next generation will develop?